Page 7 of Stars in Halo

A shark-level mode of desperation hovered over the baccarat mesa and each player.

Chasing an ever-fading windfall.

Xion leaned back, pushed his thick locks from his face, and studied the assembled card sharks. His meta-perception fixed on getting a bead on them, running through their identikits in his neural vision.

To his right was Mad Masunda, a solid, heavy-set man with Galician features and a permanent scowl.

He held his cards close to his chest, the calculating glint in his eyes suggesting he was not to be trifled with.

He’d won the Annual Sable High Roller card tournament a year ago, a yearly extravaganza that attracted the best and brightest in poker and baccarat. His prize had been a coveted xentium and diamond necklace, a Sable-designed racer, a bracelet, and two million schills.

Word on the street is that he’d burnt through the lot in under six months, which made him ravenous tonight.

He was accompanied by a burly, seven-foot-tall Sirius X bodyguard, packing severe heat, who was now lurking in the shadows of the salon’s corners.

Even though he’d match him in battle, Xion comprehended better than underestimating him, for he’d come out bruised in a fight with the man whose people were legendary brawlers.

Next to Mad sat a woman draped in opulent furs, her fingers adorned with glittering jewels that caught the light every time she placed a bet. Her laughter was rich and melodic, but there was a flash of deceit behind her dazzling smile. She also only went by one appellation. Su.

She was a by-the-book player representing a Galician consortium.

At least, that’s what she wanted people to think.

The Rider knew she carried secrets far more valuable than the chips stacked before her. She and Mad were in cahoots together to try and game the cards, a fact they’d tried to hide from the Sable Group, but one uncovered by Mirage’s quantum computing reach.

Keeping to himself in one corner was a man with slicked-back hair, his beady eyes darting around the table with a predatory gleam.

A fine sheen of sweat coated his forehead, betraying his nerves. His name was Vincent Bata, a notorious Siriuxian gambler with a reputation for winning at any cost.

On Xion’s left perched Isabella Annan D’Ransi, a rake-thin woman he identified as a famous Rhesian art dealer.

Her elegant posture and refined attire belied her true nature. She exuded an air of mystery, her piercing gaze revealing a shrewdness that made Xion wary.

Her porcelain skin contrasted with the dark shadows under her eyes, hinting at countless sleepless nights spent plotting her way out of debt, given that her foundation owed millions of schills to her lenders.

Across from the Rider sat a burly man with the alias of ‘The Bull.’ He earned this nickname for his massive frame and relentless aggression on the card table. When he played, his face was screwed up in an intense scowl.

‘Twas clear every player had something to hide, and Xion’s files on them were a precautionary measure to protect his group’s interests.

It was also one surefire way to keep an eye on Pegasi’s felons without raising their suspicions. It kept the Rider close to society’s underbelly, connected to the sinister and twisted corners where secrets and power were traded.

Most of the time, sitting in this salon with cunning kinais such as these, Xion buzzed with dynamism and energy.

However, tonight, he was too drained to appreciate the privilege.

Right now, he was yearning to be halfway across Eden II. In his glass-fronted villa overlooking the wild lunar plains and dark mountains of J’Urg M’hor with a bottle of cold brew in his hand.

He rubbed his tired eyes.

Fokk, focus, man, he told himself.

Mirage glanced up as if reading his mind. Ko’sawa, Rider?

He jerked his chin at her. ‘Fokkin’ rooted. Can we hurry this along and keep this game quick?

The Sable intelligentsia raised a brow. Will that be enough time for you to check Anastasios out?

Seated across the Rider was Anastasios Panaskerteli, a middle-aged, washed-out royal, one much lower on the Falasian rung of ascendancy.

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